Bangai cardinal breeding

[Hyprviperx]

Hello everyone... i recently purchased some bangai cardinals and two seemed to have paired up pretty quickly. i am wondering 3 things:

First: what size are they when they are sexually mature? ive read 5-6 months of age but i dont have a exact birth date to go by.

Second: how long after pairing up does it take to begin seeing any signs of mating?

Third: what is the wiggling or shaking people refer to about the mating dance? is it like a fin pop or a whole body shake or just a little swimming motion very near to the female?
Thanks,
Eric :ooh:

 

[gflat65]

Can't help much on the answers, but I got a pair of tank raised from Sustainable Aquatics about a year ago and just noticed babies a couple of weeks ago. They are in my frag tank, so they aren't observed like the other tanks. So far, I've found six babies that are still swimming around (had no idea they had mated).

 

[cultivatedcoral]

I'm not sure when they become sexually mature but I would say closer to 9-12 months. Our pair from ORA were about 3 years old+ before their first spawn. It happened when we removed all of our live rock from the tank.

The mating dance not no really a shaking but a wiggling of the rear finds like shaking their a**. It usually happens in the early evening and can go on for hours or days before spawning. The female will nudge the male around too.

Don't get to worried about when they will spawn after pairing it could be a while and maybe never.

Here is a video of our pairs mating dance. Good luck with your pair.

[video]http://s5.photobucket.com/albums/y165/goldwindow53/Interruptus%20Video/?action=view&current=BangaiisLetsgetiton.flv[/video]